The Grimaldis celebrated one of their biggest annual events over the weekend. Every year, Prince Albert hosts the Rose Ball, a huge fundraiser for the Princess Grace Foundation, one of the Grimaldis’ big charitable organizations. The Rose Ball is a huge deal. So is it weird that Princess Charlene didn’t come out for it? I’ve been saying that Charlene and Albert seem a lot stronger now that they’ve got an heir and a spare (Gabrielle and Jacques), but it also feels like Charlene skips out on a lot of stuff now that she’s got the babies as an excuse to not be around.
So, at this year’s Rose Ball, Albert’s sister Princess Caroline acted as hostess, and her children came out. Andrea and his wife Tatiana were there, as were the rest of her kids: Pierre Casiraghi and his new wife Beatrice, Charlotte Casiraghi (who was also missing her partner, Gad), and Princess Alexandra of Hanover, who is Caroline’s youngest child, the only child Caroline had with Ernst August of Hanover. Caroline and Ernst are pretty much separated full time – I don’t think he’s ever in Monaco, and he seems to live with a succession of mistresses all around the world. Just FYI.
As for the fashion, Caroline, Charlotte and Alexandra all wore Chanel. Karl Lagerfeld is particularly close to the Grimaldis, and he often dresses the royal women. I personally like that Charlotte went with a caped pantsuit, it looks daring and modern on her, although the silk satin is slightly budget for Chanel. The big show-stopped look came from Beatrice Casiraghi, who married Pierre last summer in a lavish, multi-nation extravaganza. Beatrice is Italian, so she chose to wear an Italian designer: Giambattista Valli. Her gown with big, frothy and red. I actually like the big-ball-gown look, and my only real qualm is that with all of that old-money and glamour, her wispy bangs still look kind of awful.
Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News.
Cake topper.
The dress is crazy, what was she thinking? Funny. What a way to make it all about yourself.
I love the dress. To me it seems like all of the women are confident in themselves and choose dresses/pants that they were comfortable with and are not necessarily in competition. If you think about Beatrice and her wedding, I think she likes these types of gowns and can definitely wear the heck out of them.
I love the gown but it just seems like too much since the rest of the women are wearing far more understated outfits.
Charlotte’s lovely. I so wish she had found Prince Harry earlier…that would’ve been epic.
A Grimaldi Windsor wedding was never going to happen. Among European royalty the Monaco royals aren’t looked on very favorably.
Besides, they’re Catholic & that wouldn’t go over at all in the UK.
Ok, now I’m intrigued. Why is that?
Talie – Yes! She is beautiful. And I want Caroline’s dress please… Can’t stand Albert & his cruise director uniforms… Ugh. Charlene is probably planning her escape somewhere… She has the saddest eyes…
She went through so much trouble to upstage the royals, but didn’t remember to put a comb through her hair. #bangproblems
Yes! This was definitely an upstage situation that fell flat. It’s like Mae West on steroids.
Yeah, that hair is making her look like Chloe Sevigny or whatever her name is.
Tegteg – yes!
She is giving me Dakota Johnson bangs and the dress is giant. But let’s talk about that emerald pendant…omg. It’s perfect. The rest of the ladies look like Chanel tampons. Lagerfeld is le troll supreme.
Chanel tampons. Hahaha.
My first impression-and I know emeralds are rare and valuable-was Christmas.
Caroline overall looks awful. What’s up?
I’d rather discuss the tragic situation aka the bangs..
PS: Charlotte and Gad haven’t been together for a while.
She has been dating an Italian director named Lamberto Sanfelice.
Love the gown!
Don’t like the hair. I thought it was Uma Thurman at first. lol
The dress is AMAZING, that’s what royals should wear, amazing fashion, but her hair is shit.
Just goes to show that money can’t always buy class. I think every single one of them looks pretty awful. One has pants that are wrinkly & too short, one has hair that looks like she just went running & jewelry that doesn’t match her gown, most of their makeup is dreadful, the baby doll dress is such a “huh?”, and awful awful shoes everywhere. The Swedish royals should have come & dressed them!
Yup. Every one of those dresses probably cost a 4 figure sum (at least).
And every one of them is ugly.
I love the red gown. Charlotte’s dress is what I think of as a traditional ball gown i.e. big poofy skirt. The other women don’t look dressed for a traditional ball.
I like the gown. This is a very dysfunctional family.
Lowercaselois- you got that right!!
Her hair is atrocious. She looks like she just left the steam room and decided to let her hair air dry.
Whoa! Next to Beatrice the other women look almost invisible. I love the red gown, but have more love for the fact that Beatrice is owning her look–she looks radiant and super confident. I think she’s a true fashionista!
as you name indicates : hello beatrice, so glad you felt so good about yourself… bu truth is your feeling doesn’t match our poor eyes… ;D
Love the gown. I just saw many pictures on a french website where she’s having the time of her life on the dance floor with her husband, twirling, and looking positively radiant to be there. I’m not sure i could move so effortlessly with such a massive thing. So the pure joy totally makes up for the bangs.
Alexandra (minus the cape) and Beatrice are the only ones looking good…not spectacular but good. The rest looks meh
There are new pictures of the twins. I´m surprised every time Albert and Charlene show their kids only a few european papers publish the pictures. Charlene even took her little son with her for a sports event and there was almost zero mention outside french media. The little Prince was the star charming people around him. He was natural with all the people and had no problems with the tv cameras.
These two litte cuties are adorable. The new photos show Albert playing with them on the floor, running around and Charlene swimming with Gabriella in the pool. Not staged in expensive cloths with big hair and make up
That’s a red wedding dress, literally. Maria Baibakova (socialite) wore it last summer. http://www.vogue.com/13358570/maria-baibakova-and-adrien-faure-wedding-provence/
Charlotte and gad are not together anymore for a while now , she is dating an italian director,Lamberto Sanfelice, quite an upgrade after grandpa gad (her new squeeze is about the same age as Gad but doesn’t look as much worn out as the former)
Nobody can get within 2 feet of her with that gown. That’s one way to make yourself stand out I guess.
Interesting that even with her weird bangs SHE is wearing the dress and not the other way. I’m more into the white pants and Cape look , is that Charlene’s sIL wearing it?
Looks like such a happy family….love all the side eye that’s going on.
Princess Caroline has been aging so gracefully and still has fantastic style IMO. I love the fact that her face doesn’t look plastic like so many Hollywood women. Love all of the ladies’ dresses. But not a fan of Beatrice’s bangs here.
BTW – Karl Largerfeld is giving off some very strong Addams Family vibe here. Hee.
Princess Caroline does look good. I discovered her as a kid, fell in love with the name and named my first daughter Caroline.
Princess Caroline is aging better than her brother sister and eldest son.
I thought she was Rashida Jones before I read the header.
Yes! I totally get Rashida vibes from her as well.
I think it’s very telling that Charlene skipped and Caroline was there. There are rumors that Caroline is VERY unhappy with losing her place as first lady of Monaco and that there’s been friction. If Caroline was the hostess and brought her whole family, Charlene wasn’t going to go. Anyone remember last year when Albert and Charlene hosted the event together and none of the Casiraghi/Hanover contingent showed?
Also, Caroline and Ernst separated years ago, but there’s no way Caroline is going to initiate a divorce and give up her HRH and Ernst likely doesn’t want to pay through the nose in a divorce settlement.
ETA: I don’t know if it’s just the pictures that were chosen, but none of the Grimaldi’s look particularly happy to be together. Which makes me think Beatrice’s choice of a big, red dress was deliberate.
I thought she looked great in it. Most importantly, you could tell she felt beautiful in it. It showed on her face. She positively glowed being in that gown. I can’t hate on that kind of joy when you feel at your most beautiful.
Woah you guys are slightly behind the times! Gad and Charlotte broke up last fall, she’s been dating some Italian guy named Lamberto San Felice (or last time I checked).
Gad has been in the States a lot recently in the past year doing stand up in English. I am a huge fan of his (way before he came onto this site’s radar when he started dating Charlotte) and have seen him perform in NYC French and in English a few times. Absolutely love him, he is very funny and he has done some late night interviews (you tube clips of Seth Myers and the Daily Show). My sister’s company does PR for him so I’ve got to see him perform for free. His face has been all over NYC cabs to promote his show “Oh My Gad.” Most likely all his work in the States causd Charlotte and Gad to break up but not surprised, the guy is a workaholic.
As for the rest of the family, love Beatrice’s outfit and Alexandra’s. Not a huge fan of Charlotte’s.
God horrible clothing. Karl needs to think about retirement.
I was thinking that Caroline’s dress is the first Chanel I have liked in a long time. The red ball gown is incredible, but that necklace is spectacular. All that, and then show with that awful hair?? Go figure-
Fam… Why are we talking about the red pom pom dress and hair with greasy bangs when that Glorified reimagined Hanbok and that Satin Belly Giving High waters Pants set are in the midst?!??!
Also For Caroline ( and we know what Caroline has looked like of late ( face for the excess of sun and cigarettes) she looks actually good!
Regarding Charlotte , it’s been a while Gad left her. Not even sure they were still toghether the 1st year of their boy…..
I actually think this looks amazing and I would love to wear a dress like that. You wear it for the drama, and she is definitely bringing it.
I think the dress is beautiful…the hair is what’s tragic. Why get all dressed up and then wear your hair so it looks like you got caught in the rain?